Edtech Startup TagHive Raises $2.5M In Series A Round

TagHive, a Samsung Ventures-backed ed-tech startup, announced today US $2.5 million in Series A funding led by Forest Partners, a leading alternative investment firm based in South Korea. TagHive plans to use the funds to ramp up technology upgrades and expand local teams in India to meet growing demand for its smart learning platform.

TagHive is on a mission to solve education inequality and to disrupt India’s US $7.5 billion public schooling ecosystem by improving classroom learning with smart technology. ‘Class Saathi’, developed by TagHive, is an AI based clicker solution that drives greater student engagement and participation in classrooms. The solution is affordable and does not require schools to upgrade their infrastructure as it functions via bluetooth connectivity instead of internet or electricity. 

TagHive has already partnered with the Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh state governments to launch Class Saathi in more than 2,200 public schools across both states. According to the Founder & CEO, Pankaj Agarwal, a graduate of IIT Kanpur and Harvard Business School, the company plans to expand into at least 5,000 schools in India by 2022. A variation of Class Saathi, called ClassKey, is also running in over 1,000 classrooms in South Korea.

“We are confident and highly impressed by TagHive’s team and ability to execute its plans to deliver much needed smart learning tools to public schools across India,” said Alex Seung Han, Founding Partner of Forest Partners. “This deal marks our first foray into India and is well aligned with our strategy to invest in disruptive companies with potential for global expansion.”

TagHive’s smart learning solutions address the unprecedented need for better education tools to accommodate remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently TagHive introduced a new feature to Class Saathi called Saathi Pacemaker which helps save revision time for students and also gives them confidence in solving more complex problems.

“We are excited about this recent funding which will help us upgrade our technology to meet the needs for better education tools in India which is more important now than ever due to the pandemic,” said Pankaj Agarwal, Founder & CEO of TagHive. Agarwal further added, “Going forward, we plan to continue to bring innovative tech-driven learning solutions to expand our footprint in India, South Korea and other markets.”

Class Saathi provides a clicker device for each student and a mobile application for teachers, parents and the administrators. After teaching a concept in class, the teacher can ask a few questions using Class Saathi to gauge the understanding level of each and every student. The administrators and the parents can also see the learning data on their respective apps. While the Class Saathi app has over 25,000 math and science questions for Grades 6-10 based on the CBSE curriculum, content of any language and curriculum can be easily added. Over 5.5 million questions have been solved on Class Saathi as of December 20, 2021. Class Saathi is also aligned with the objectives of India’s National Education Policy 2020 of micro-learning and continuous assessments. The “Data First” approach ensures greater accountability at all levels.